Brandon Varnell's Blog, page 3

Shokugeki no Soma Video Review!

I've decided to do something new by creating a video review for anime that I like... or hate. This is my first video review, so please let me know how I'm doing. Also, please like the video and subscribe to my channel. The more subscribers I have, the more likely I am to keep doing this. Thanks everyone!
Click here to go to my channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/nomistake

12 Beast, Volume 1!

12 Beast Vol. 1 by OKAYADO
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

12 Beast is the second series created by OKAYADO, the man who created the NYC best seller, Monster Musume. And just like Monster Musume, 12 Beast is chalk full of fan service and gorgeous monster girls, but this time it all takes place in a fantasy setting.



The series is about Eita Touga, a young man who loves playing video games a little too much. He also happens to be a ninja who's been trained in ninjutsu techniques by his grandfather. Yes, a gamer has become a ninja. What has this world come to?



During the first volume, we're introduced to Aero, a harpy who has a request for Eita. She wants him to help save her world, Re-verse, which is like a fantasy world that you can only get to by going through a dimensional gate. Her world is under attack by machines known as Gigas. Sadly, Eita only cares about video games and doesn't want to get involved. It's too bad for him Aero has no intention of listening and drags him into her world anyway.

This series has a lot of action. While Monster Musume was pure fanservice-y fluff, this one appears to have something resembling a plot--even if it is kind of a cliche'd plotline. The story still isn't that serious, however. I have a feeling the plot is mostly there to deliver interesting bits of humor and titillation. Since OKAYADO is the one making this, I have a feeling we're going to get a lot more fetishy soon.



Overall, I'd have to say this series isn't bad, but it lacks the charm of Monster Musume, which is oddly cute despite the fetish fueled fanservice. I did enjoy reading this, and I bought the other two volumes that have come out. I'll probably finish those two volumes and make a decision on whether or not I'll continue reading this from that.

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The Reason Twin Star Exorcist is Just an Okay Anime

Last season saw a number of entertaining anime, including the likes of My Hero Academia and RE Zero - Starting Life in Another World, which I feel were the two best anime to have come out this season. However, not every anime that came out was amazing. Some were mediocre, and some were just okay.

Twin Star Exorcist is an anime that was just okay. It wasn't bad by any means, but it didn't have anything that made it stand out in the crowd. I guess it wouldn't be inaccurate to say that this series was an example of an average shonen. It had all of the standard shonen tropes, some of which it used well and others that fell flat. As interesting as the concept was, and as good as I think this anime could have been, I believe that it failed to live up to its full potential.

The first issue lay within the two main characters. Rokuro and Benio are the most typical example of a shonen couple. Rokuro is rash, reckless, and idiotic. Benio is calm and collected... until someone tries to steel her sweets. From the moment they meet, they hate each other. Despite this, everyone who sees them comments on how they, "act like a married couple." Clearly, these idiots have never seen a real married couple before. I don't think this would have been as big of a problem if the animators had done this right, but the problem is that they try too hard. When I watched this, I felt less like Benio and Rokuro's dislike of each other was justified, and more like the two were simply created this way for the sake of adding "couple humor." The fact that even after 12 episodes they are no closer to liking each other only adds evidence to prove my point. This sort of trope is only entertaining for a few episodes before it becomes contrite and dull. For something like this to work, something needs to happen. The characters need to progress. When they don't, the humor loses its appeal.

My second issue with this anime was the filler episodes. Filler episodes in anime are generally used to "fill in the space" between plots after the anime has caught up with the manga. Sadly for Twin Star Exorcist, there's no need for filler here. While the manga may only be around 8 volumes, each volume is comprised of, I believe, 4 or 5 chapters. If each episode of the anime used 2 chapters of the manga--chapters in Twin Star are generally around 30 to 50 pages, so this is perfectly viable--then they should easily be able to keep up with the manga. Now, if they actually DID run out of content, then they could have gone the filler route, but since there's no need, the filler is even more useless than the filler episodes in Naruto. Seeing several episodes worth of pointless filler that introduces characters who I don't even remember seeing in the manga bored me to tears. This is especially true because none of those episodes did anything. They didn't develop the characters, they didn't help the characters grow stronger, and they didn't give us any background information to help us understand the characters. I know filler is done to fill in the blank space between the actual story, but I really wish they had at least been done to serve a purpose.

And now for the biggest failure from this anime: This guy. Right here. This little mascot guy. I hate this creature. I hate him so much. Not only was he not in the manga, but his entire purpose is pointless and he annoys me to no end. One thing that I've always disliked about certain shonen anime are the annoying mascot characters. They're so hard to do right. Everyone seems to think that by making this cute little creature spew insults at the male protagonist while glorifying the female protagonist is funny, but it isn't. It really isn't. It's annoying. It's even worse than the "guy accidentally sees the female protagonist naked, and then gets his butt kicked by said furious female, even though she should have locked the door, which would have prevent this entire situation from happening." Perhaps not so surprisingly, this trope is also used in the anime. Heck, it even throws in the, "let's get angry at the male protagonist for having porn even though the female isn't dating the male protagonist" trope.

All that said, I don't think this was a terrible anime. Not very good, perhaps. But not terrible. I ascribe to the belief that an anime doesn't need to be excellent in order to be entertaining, and Twin Star Exorcist fits this. It's not amazing, but it still does a decent job of entertaining me.

If you're into the shonen/action/romantic comedy genre, then you'll enjoy this, just like I did. And hey! This anime is supposed to have 50 episodes and only 13 are out, so if you do like this series, you'll have a good amount of episodes to enjoy it.

Strike the Blood, Volume 3

ストライク・ザ・ブラッド 〈3〉 天使炎上 by Gakuto Mikumo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Life as a vampire isn't easy. Life as the Fourth Progenitor, the most powerful vampire in the world, is even harder. Throw in a high school life, a beautiful exorcist to watch after him, a gorgeous friend who happens to be the world's best cyber hacker, a princess, and an angel and you have a catastrophe in the making. Such is the life of one Kojou Akatsuki, the mightiest vampire in the world and a high school student who seems to have unwittingly gathered several super powered females as a part of his increasingly large harem.



Oh. Wait. You thought I was joking about the harem part? No, sorry. This is no joke. Strike the Blood is your typical high school harem light novel series, which is probably one of the most prevalent genre of light novel culture. A guilty pleasure? Definitely. Fortunately, this guilty pleasure is better than most.



While the story itself is pretty cliche, I won't deny that I enjoyed reading this volume. It starts off slow, meandering along with Kojou Akatsuki as he blunders his way through regular teenage problems, which include but are not limited to: his gorgeous cyber hacker friend using him as inspiration for her art project, the beautiful watcher getting jealous over said hacker friend being with him, and trying to determine whether or not he should tell his hacker friend that he's a vampire... okay. So that last part isn't necessarily something that most high school teenagers have to worry about. The rest are--erm, could be, potentially... ya know, like, in another dimension where weird and improbable situations happen...

...Moving on.



Overall, I had to say that I enjoyed the volume. Sure, it started off slow, but it eventually picked up the pace and became really exciting somewhere around the middle before eventually culminating in an action packed ending. I can also appreciate the fan service. That said, I'm biased toward the series since it is one of my guilty pleasures. However, if anyone else enjoys this particular genre, I would highly recommend giving it a read.

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To Fan Service or Not to Fan Service

Fanservice. Everyone who watches anime knows this term. However, few people actually seem to realize what this term means. I personally blame TvTropes for that. As informative as that website is, very few people seem to use it as it was meant to be used. That's part of the reason I've written this post, but not the full reason.

To start, let me begin this blog post by giving you the exact definition of fanservice. "Fanservice" is essentially this: nudity or sexual content within a book, TV show, video game, anime, manga, or some other form of media entertainment when it's NOT needed for the plot to progress. In other words, when you're watching a B-budget horror flick like Halloween of Friday 13th, and there's a sex scene, that is fanservice. It's not needed. They add it to attract viewers.

Now, I bet you're asking: what does this mean for anime?

Well, for starters, it means that To Love Ru, quite possibly one of the most prolific "fanservice" anime in the entire anime universe, does NOT actually have fanservice in it, and the reason for that is simple. The entire series of To Love Ru revolves around its ecchi, the perverse humor brought about by numerous improbable situations that would never happen in real life. It is the driving force behind the entire series. In others words, it's expected. We expect Rito to fall in some girl's tattas, or her crotch. We expect Lala to walk around the house naked. We expect Haruna to get in situations where she's being groped by Rito. We expect and expect and expect. To Love Ru without fanservice is like cheesecake without cheese. It doesn't work. And why should it? It's a harem manga about a boy who's so accident prone that he's falling face first into breasts, crotches, and accidentally fondling just about every girl he sees. Without these scenarios, To Love Ru wouldn't even be worth watching. It might as well not even exist.

That said, Another, which is a horror anime about a bunch of students getting killed off at school for plot reasons, does have fanservice. The infamous beach episode, in which a bunch of students went to the beach, had fun, and wore bikinis, was pure fanservice. It didn't need to be in there. It didn't advance the plot. There was no point to it. I've read the novels. Nowhere in the novels is there a beach episode, but the anime had it. Actually, it was the beach episode that ruined a good last chunk of the series. Not only did it come at the most inopportune time, but it also disrupted the flow of the story. I guess that's why I liked the novels better.


So, now you know the difference between fanservice and plot driven eroticism. What does this have to do with my post? I'm getting to that. You see, several months ago, I made a poll: Do you think fanservice ruins anime, enhances anime, or does it depend on the anime being watched? Out of the 520 votes that I received, a whopping 87% said that it depends on the anime being watched. Now, as I was saying before, I feel like the concept of fanservice is something that's often missunderstood. That said, it's easy to make the distinction between ecchi and fanservice if you understand what the story is about. Fairy Tail, for example, is about a guild of magical mercenaries causing destruction everywhere they go. Sure, that's downplaying a lot of the plot, but it gets the point across. That point being that all of the random nudity, male stripping, boob groping, boob falling, and various hot spring episodes... are not needed for the story to progress. It's there to add humor. In other words, it is fanservice.


My thoughts on fanservice run with the majority here. I think that having fanservice can be a help or a hindrance. For example, in a romantic comedy about awkward teenagers falling in love, having a well-timed scene of fanservice can really add to the humor. On the other hand, adding fanservice into a horror anime or one that's filled with violence and gore, would be ruined by fanservice. I mentioned it before, but the fanservice in Another ruined a good chunk of the series for me. Not only had it not done anything to advance the plot, but it had also come at an inopportune time. You see, in the previous episode, the students' teacher had died a gruesome, bloody death by stabbing himself in the neck. How would you feel if, in one episode, we're getting this horrid scene where children are getting blood splattered all over their face as it sprays out of their teacher's neck, and then the next episode, we're getting this...


Yes, we get a beach episode immediately after the teacher neck stabbing episode. It's such a jarring change, not only in the pace of the story, but also in the general feel of it. It throws you right out of the show, disrupting what had, until that point, been a thrillingly horrifying tale. What made it even worse was that the anime didn't give any indication that there would be fanservice in the series. Perhaps if there was a hint of foreshadowing, or if maybe they'd added some minor fanservice from the beginning, this episode could have been forgiven, but considering the poor timing and the fact that we're never given a hint that there would be something like this, the entire episode felt contrived, forced, and altogether unenjoyable.

Since I've already brought up Fairy Tail once, let me talk about the fanservice in this series. From episode one and on, we're given random moments of pointless but well-timed fanservice. Lucy, the titular character, is first introduced attempting to seduce an old man into giving her a discount on a magical gate key. This sets the tone for the entire series, making the fanservice less jarring and more enjoyable. It works in a way that Another simply couldn't.


So, at the end of all this, my thoughts on fanservice remain with the majority of others. It can be good if used right. It can be funny if well-timed. However, fanservice that isn't used right will only make a series worse, and sometimes, there are anime out there that just shouldn't have fanservice.

Spice and Wolf, Volume 6

Spice & Wolf, Vol. 6 by Isuna Hasekura
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The sixth volume in the Spice and Wolf series is... relaxed. I don't have a better way to describe it.

Thus far, all of the previous volumes have been fairly formulaic: Lawrence and Holo arrive in new town, a deal opportunity presents itself, Lawrence tries to make money, fails, Holo steps in to save the day, and then Holo and Lawrence end up saving each other. This formula has worked out well in the past few volumes. That said, I'm kind of glad that this volume changed things up a bit.



Starting where the fifth volume left off, Lawrence and Holo are still in Lenos. However, they come up with a course of action to chase after Eve, who, in the previous volume, betrayed Lawrence after he tried to renege on their deal. While they do go in the same direction as Eve, volume 6 isn't actually about the chase.

I mentioned it before, but this volume is more relaxed. There's no major plot in here, no person who needs saving, no deal that gets Lawrence in trouble. It's just Lawrence and Holo traveling down the river with two new characters.



One thing I really liked about this novel, and this series as a whole, is how it deals with the fact that Lawrence is a human and Holo is a wolf deity. A relationship between an immortal and a human can never last. They both know this. They both know that the journey must eventually end, but they keep journeying in spite of that.

While I mentioned this volume being very relaxed, it was still quite emotional. And of course, Lawrence still shows his ignorance. I'm actually somewhat surprised by how Lawrence still seems to get on Holo's bad side. I'm even more surprised that he couldn't figure out why he upset her and everyone else could. If there's one failing to this volume, it would be the feeling of having a forced argument for the sake of drama. It didn't feel natural this time. That said, it still wasn't enough to take away a star.

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No Game No Life, Volume 4

No Game, No Life Vol. 4 by Yuu Kamiya
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Volume 4 of No Game No Life is probably the most ridiculous, hilarious, and stupid volume of this series. It is so stupid that I felt my brain cells spontaneously combusting the longer I read it. That said, the amount of times that I laughed out loud, scaring the crap out of everyone else who was sitting at the Toyota shop waiting for their cars to be serviced, was numerous.



Volume 4 starts off with Sora trying to masturbate. Yes, masturbate. He's an 18 year old boy, you know. They do that. Masturbate, that is. So, yes, he was trying to use all of the fap material that he had painstakingly gained through excessive use of his tablets video capabilities--which he gathered with the help of Jibril--to choke the chicken, work off some tension, strangle the snake, etc., etc., etc...

Unfortunately, before he can, um, unload, he is interrupted.

And that's how this volume starts.



From start to finish, this volume was filled with ridiculous, off the wall, lewd, crass, and crude humor. Maybe it's the neanderthal in me, but I rather like lewd, crass, and crude humor, so I was laughing most of the time.

However, even though the humor was set to those of the lowest common denominator like myself, there's an intelligence about this volume that's surprising. Everything, from start to finish, is connected, even when it doesn't seem like it. Don't worry. I won't spoil how everything is connected. When you read it, you'll understand by the end that every seemingly innocuous or useless scene actually had a purpose beyond "let's do random shit because it's funny."

That said, I STILL have one problem with this series. It is this problem that has me taking away a star.

The problem is...

... Grammar.



As fun as this story is, the grammar has me throwing fits. Sometimes, the English is actually not bad. Other times, it makes me want to do the facestab...



I feel like this is a stylistic thing. It has to be. I mean, the English isn't bad in some parts. This leads me to believe that it was a conscious choice of the author to have weird, fragmented sentences all over the place.

Now, I'm not a grammar nazi. If I was, I wouldn't be reading this. That said, the choppy sentences make it super hard to follow. Sometimes I had to stop and pause, and then restructure a sentence because I didn't understand it. This killed some of my immersion.

If you can get past the grammar, then there is a truly enjoyable story hidden within these pages. I'm probably gonna buy volume 5, because despite the grammar, I really do enjoy the story, but I would understand if some people decided not to read this.

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Log Horizon, Volume 5

ログ・ホライズン4 ゲームの終わり（下） by Mamare Touno
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Mamare Touno has outdone himself with this one. Since this is part two of the current arc, there's no dilly-dallying here. We jump straight into a war with the goblins, who now have a king because none of the adventurers, who would have normally taken on the quest to slay the Goblin King when Elder Tales was a game, had done so this time.

I think the first aspect about this volume that I really liked was how the adventurers lack of quest taking was the cause for what happened here. When Elder Tales was a game, there was a quest that would come up every so often: Take down the Goblin King. However, thanks to the catastrophe that brought them to this world, so similar to the one they knew from the video game yet very different at the same time, the quest that would have dealt with the Goblin King before he became a threat was never taken. Thanks to that, the goblins crowned a king, who then decided to send out his forces to pillage and plunder the land.



Frightening enough to do the "glasses flash," fight? However, goblins aren't the only threat. What makes Log Horizon truly interesting isn't just how the goblins have come about because the Goblin King was never slain, but how it affects the People of the Earth. The People of the Earth, formerly NPCs in Elder Tales, are a society that was based off of older European culture. It follows the conscripts of many fantasy stories, where the times are more reminiscent medieval Europe, and their politics are quite similar. This presents an interesting contrast between the People of the Earth and the Adventurers, which causes friction during the debates on what they should do about the goblin army.



I feel that it's the People of the Earth who make this LN stand out so much. They aren't just NPCs in this. They are real people, and their politics harken back to days long forgotten. It makes for an interesting story.

Of course, there is far more to this story than just NPCs becoming real people. How Shiroe and the gang handle the political situation they've found themselves, how the goblins are dealt with, the carefully constructed world building, all of it feels a lot more well thought out than other LNs of its genre. Of course, having only read SAO and No Game No Life, I don't have much to compare it to, but between the three, this one is definitely my favorite.

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If this story had one aspect that I didn't like, then it's how long winded it sometimes felt. There were occasions where the story felt like it was dragging on, describing aspects that would have been interesting if not for the fact that I was more curious about the story than the world building. They were in the middle of a war with the goblins. Such a thing should have been exhilarating, but some of the excitement was stolen because, during these scenes, the author would go on and on and on as he went into the perspective of whatever character the story was being told from at that time. There were occasions where it felt like pontificating for the sake of upping word count. That said, it wasn't as if I hated these moments. I just wished the story had moved a little faster.

In all regards, this series continues to stand at the top in terms of writing, world building, and character developing. I'm gonna buy the next volume.

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Utawarerumono Review!

In a world where cute girls with animal ears reign supreme, comes a surprisingly violent series about a man who doesn't remember his past... and the cute animal-eared girl who loves him... yeah. Why don't I just get this review started, eh?



Let us begin with a basic rundown of Utawarerumono... nonononono. The series starts off with a man who has no past, no name, and was found unconscious in a forest. He also likes to stroke the tails of girls, but that's a story for another time. Given the name Hakuoro by the village chieftess, this anime follows his journey as he learns more about himself and gets into a lot of epic wars along the way. Yes. I am quite serious here. The amount of war packed into this 26 episode series is off the charts. However, that's not necessarily a bad thing.

As an anime that was based on a strategy game, it's no wonder that this series features a lot of epic fights. That said, the story isn't all fighting. There's a surprising amount of character development and thought put into their concept. One of the greatest joys I received from watching this anime was seeing how the characters interacted off the battlefield as well as on. Furthermore, all of the characters are truly likable. Whether we're talking about the adorable Aruruu, the hot-headed Oboro, or the lovely Eruruu, there are plenty of characters for you to gush over.
Character wise, if this anime had one true failing, it would be the blatantly obvious villains. I'm not joking here. Every villain who appeared was so obviously evil that it was sickening to see how obviously virtuous and just the good guys were. The first villain was a prick with a chip on his shoulder, the second was a fat emperor, the third was insane and started a war for pleasure... basically, there's no subtlety to any of these villains. It made watching the battles a little less enjoyable. I personally would have enjoyed watching a sophisticated sociopath who used trickery instead of brute force to get his way. Even the last bad guy was pretty blatant in his "I'm the evil final last boss!" spiel.
The final villain was another problem I had. This has more to do with foreshadowing, however. While a lot of the characters were explained well and developed, this guy was never explained until the info dump at the end. It would have been better if, rather than shoving lots of information on us during the final few moments, we learned about the villain bit by bit over the course of the story. As is, I almost feel like the director introduced this guy at random, didn't know what to do with him, and then said, "ah, screw it!" in the end and did whatever he felt like.

Overall, I think there are a lot of good things about this anime. There was a solid story, excellent characters, epic battles, decent animation and artwork, and an okay romance that I kinda wish had a little more substance. This was a highly enjoyable anime, and if you like any of the above mentioned things, then I suggest giving this a watch.
Artwork: 7/10
Animation: 7/10
Sound: 7/10
Characters: 9/10
Story: 8/10
Personal Enjoyment: 9/10
Total: 7.8/10

Heavy Object Anime Review

In a world where the various nations have been fractured by war, a new power comes into play, one that has changed the very face of war. Objects. Mechanized monstrosities that look a lot like a Death Star with a shit ton of guns attached to their hull. These Objects have become synonymous with war, changing the rules of engagement, turning what had once been a serious and deadly affair into something more closely resembling a board game. This is one of the most serious, thrilling, and brutal anime ever.

I'm being serious here.

I'm serious, damn it!

Joking aside, this series does have some intense moments. It's basically a modern action series that centers around Qwenthar and Havia, a student who's studying to become an Object engineer in order to get rich and a blue blood noble who's trying to succeed as the head of his family. Much of the story revolves around them fighting Objects, defeating Objects, and making crass jokes about porn and boobs.
One of the aspects that I really enjoyed about this series was the concept of Objects. As I mentioned before, Objects are basically massive constructs that take the basic mecha idea and turn it on its head. These are nothing like Gundams. Objects are basically large spherical weapons of war. With heavy armaments, armor that can withstand even a nuclear explosion, and the ability to devastate everything in their sight, it is said that only another object can defeat an object - well, at least until Qwenthar and Havia come along.
The anime follows a series of arcs, with each arc being dedicated to Qwenthar and Havia fighting against a variety of Objects. Each Object that they fight is different from the last, with different weapons, a different configuration, different strengths, and different weaknesses. Not only does the anime showcase how each Object is unique, but it also does a good job of maintaining a certain level of suspense by having Qwenthar try to figure out how to defeat each Object. While you pretty much know that he's going to win in the end, you still have to wonder about how he's going to do it. In this regard, the anime does an excellent job.

One area where I feel the anime doesn't do as good a job is in the relationships between some of the characters. While I dig the bromance between Qwenthar and Havia, I felt like the relationship between Qwenthar and Milinda was stagnant. Milinda is the Objects pilot. Dubbed Princess, her role in the anime is as the stoic yet badass female pilot of the Object known as the Baby Magnum. However, you don't see much of her. Sadly, it seems her role is basically to battle other objects and then be a fan service girl for the rest of the time. One thing I hated about their relationship is how oblivious Qwenthar is. I get that the oblivious trope is a big thing, but there's only so much dense main character that I can take. Everyone except for Qwenthar is aware of her feelings, but lord curse us if the main character ever gets a brain and realizes it as well.

Now, Frolaytia Capistrano is one of the characters who I feel was actually done well. She's a badass commander who doesn't take other people's shit and has a sadistic side. I think what makes her such an appealing character is that she's confident. She doesn't hesitate to make decisions that she feels are for the best, and she's also not afraid of using her looks to get her way. While there are a number of times where she's shown in a sexual light, I think it fits her character as the badass but sexy commander. I also like how, rather than simply putting up with Havia's blatant sex jokes, she fires them back. She can shoot the shit with the best of them, isn't afraid of getting down and dirty, and knows how to use assets to get her way, both on and off the battlefield.
Artwork: 8/10
Animation: 9/10
Sound: 8/10
Characters: 7.5/10
Story: 8/10
Personal Enjoyment: 8/10
Total: 8.3/10